


The children are not to blame

by well_its_me_again



Category: One Piece
Genre: Other, Sabo paints to kill time while he is imprisoned in his own home, Stelly is just a kid, This fic is mostly about how goa kingdom society sucks and how bad are they at raising children, it's mostly stelly tho, just Sabo being a good brother, poor Stelly, when Sabo was ten and stuck at home with his shitty parents and brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/well_its_me_again/pseuds/well_its_me_again
Summary: I just want a Stelly redemption arc. (set when Sabo was ten and imprisoned in his home. In other words: my interpretation of Stellys' character)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	The children are not to blame

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote it in one take, at night and did not check the spelling, sorry for any mistakes I made.

,,It’s still not perfect’’ the words ran through his mind as he walked down the hall leading from his fathers’ private library to the stairs and then his room.  
,,How much more perfect does he want me to be’’ - he thought bitterly, looking at the test with written score of 84/100, but shook his head a second later ,,I can’t think that way. What an ungrateful child I am! I have to do better! Or I’ll end up like…..like like him!’’  
He glared in the direction of his adoptive brothers’ room. What was he doing again? Definitely not studying.   
He felt incredible anger rise within him. How dare he not do anything and still be here, threatening his position. Sabo, spent few years on doing nothing productive and even stealing! Yet their father decided to look for him anyway. To bring him back home, even when they had him – Stelly. Was Sabo that important? Stelly could do anything that Sabo could and even more. He would provide much more for this family! So why was he still around here??? Was he more important? Was he more loved? He was their biological son after all! Did Stelly mean nothing to them?  
He always had to do better and better. He had to be better than anyone else to be loved. And he is going to do it. He – Stelly – will marry the princess one day and make his new family proud. He will make them accept him and show them that he can be perfect. He can be the perfect son they want him to be!  
And he was back at the starting point, looking at the test with those bloody 16 points missing.   
But still, he was better than Sabo. And that is the one thing he can be proud of.   
He approached the door to Sabos’ room and knocked on it. Not waiting for a response, Stelly walked in.  
He found his older brother sitting on the floor, near the shelf. His desk was crowded with papers, paints and some maps he could find in the library. The floor already had colorful stains.  
,,Oh father is going to hear about this’’ - Stelly thought. Sabo could pretend he was learning geography, but they all knew what this was about. Plus – he was painting again! That was forbidden since their father thought it was distracting Sabo from his studies.  
\- Hello nii-sama – he said, in the most cocky tone he could do. Sabo didn’t raise his head from….whatever he was working on. - I heard you scored 35 on the last math test. It is a topic for five-year-olds you know?  
\- Hmmm maybe – Sabo replied, uninterested. He didn’t seem to listen. The look in his eyes told Stelly, that Sabos’ mind was far away from here, free as a bird, probably thinking about his friends.  
Even he didn’t pay attention to Stelly. How dare he!  
\- I mean how can you be this bad at such an easy topic? Even I, though I’m two years younger, I got a better score! - he wanted to say perfect, but he knew this wasn’t even good yet. When Sabo walked up to the desk, to put his painting away, Stelly slipped his test in front of him, forcing the older boy to focus on the situation – See? 84! Much better than y-  
\- oh wow – he said, kinda casually, looking at the paper before him. Yet he sounded genuinely impressed. Then he reached in and ruffled Stellys’ hair, smiling softly – Good job.  
The younger boy froze in place. His jaw dropped.  
That was a good job? That was all he needed to do to impress him? He wasn’t even being nice!   
\- What? - he asked, his voice betraying him and cracking a little. - I only scored one pint more than before! It’s not even considered progress!  
\- Well, it was a pretty hard test y’know? It’s great that you scored that high! - Sabo explained, putting Stellys test down and going back into his work - Besides, even that one point progress is important. Sometimes it takes much longer to learn something, but if you make that one point progress everyday, then one time you’ll get to 100.  
Stelly was at loss of words. Was this really enough? For the first time in his life, Stelly felt like he really did a good job, and that one day he will be even better. Was this okay? He still lacked those 14 points to perfection...but maybe if he did like what Sabo is saying….He shook his head.  
He was not Sabo, maybe he could let himself take it slowly but Stelly was expected to work much faster. He was better after all. He had to be.   
He couldn’t let himself to slack off. He had to be much better or his parents would be disappointed.  
\- You don’t understand! - Sabo looked surprised at his little brother, while Stelly stomped his feet on the floor – You’re so dumb! Don’t you get that you have to work much better than that or you’ll never catch up!? Father would get so mad if I was learning slowly! How dare you even talk about something like that?! Just wait till father finds out you’re not studying! I’ll tell him!   
He grabbed his test and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.  
.  
.  
Sabo forwned, looking in the direction his little brother went. For most of the time he wasn’t listening to what Stelly was saying. His mind was back with his brothers. That’s why he reacted the way he did when he saw the test. That reminded him of Luffy and how he always tried to show off to him and Ace to make them proud. It made him feel a little nostalgic.   
But thanks to that he also realized that Stelly was just a goddamn kid. Like Luffy.  
He seeked attention and love… and knowing this family he wasn’t given those. He had to earn them. That made Sabo incredibly sad. He knew now that the way Stelly was acting wasn’t his fault. He just didn’t know any better. Sabo cursed the society they lived in. He cursed his parents for trying to raise monsters.   
But he remembered how Stelly was surprised by Sabo’s words and thought that maybe there is a little hope for him. After all he was a victim, just like Sabo and probably many other children there. The question was: could he free himself?


End file.
